Wipeout (game show)

Wipeout was a short-lived U.S. game show, which aired in 1988 with Peter Tomarken hosting (who originally was the host of Press Your Luck). It also later became a British game show of the same name, presented by Paul Daniels (1995-1997) and later Bob Monkhouse (1998-2003). It was also an Australian game show hosted by Tony Johnston. The title comes from the fact that incorrect answers cause the contestants to lose their acculumlated prize money.

The American version was produced by Dames-Fraser Productions, and syndicated by Paramount Television.

Main Game

Round One

Three contestants start with no money in the bank. The board is made up of 16 screens, each of which has one of 16 possible answers to a question. Eleven of these answers are correct, and the remaining 5 are incorrect (dubbed Wipeouts). The starting contestant guesses one of the correct answers, and wins money if successful. However, if he or she selects a Wipeout, that contestant loses all accumulated money, and control passes to the next player in line. After a correct answer, a contestant can guess again, or he may pass the subject to the next player, who then must guess an answer. The round continues until all the correct answers or all the Wipeouts have been chosen.

Scoring

Here is the scoring format used on the show:

In America - $25 for the first answer, plus 25 for every subsequent answer revealed with the last being worth $275.
In the UK - £10 for the first answer, plus 10 for every subsequent answer revealed with the last being worth £110.
In Australia - there were two boards; since it was a children's game show they played for points (in Australia, children on game shows are not allowed to win any money). Each correct answer on the first board was worth 25 points, and correct answers on the second board were worth 50 points.

"Hot Spot"

Behind one of the correct answers was a "Hot Spot". If a player selected that answer and avoided a Wipeout for the rest of the round, he/she won a bonus prize. If the player with the Hot Spot found a Wipeout, the Hot Spot went back on the board behind one of the remaining correct answers.

After the first round, whoever has the least amount of money accumulated was eliminated, and any money accumulated by the remaining two contestants to that point was "safe". In the event there was a tie for second place (usually when two players finished with no money), a tiebreaker board was put up with 12 answers instead of 16, 8 of which were correct, and the other 4 being Wipeouts. A coin flip determined who went first, and the two players would alternate giving answers until one found either a Wipeout (and lost) or the last correct answer (and won). The survivor advanced along with the first place finisher.

Round Two

The second round (known as the Challenge Round in the USA, "Wipeout Auction" in the UK, and "Bid for the Grid" in Australia) was a best of 3 competition, with a board similar to the first round, but with 12 answers instead of 16. Eight answers were correct, and the other 4 were Wipeouts. Each board was preceded by an "auction", where the players bid on the number of answers they could get right. The winner then had to get as many correct answers as his/her bid, and won the board if they did so. If the contestant failed, the opposing player could win the board by selecting one correct answer. If another Wipeout was selected, play passed back to the first player, who would then try to complete their original bid. The first player to win two boards won the game, and advanced to the final round.

The Final Round

The bonus round was played for a car (or in Australia, a grand prize suited for children). The contestant was shown a new board with 12 monitors and given a category. Six monitors contained items fitting in that category, with the other six containing wrong answers. The player had to race to the monitor wall, touch the six monitors he or she thought had the right answers, then race back and hit a plunger. Upon hitting the plunger, the number of correct answers was revealed, and the player had to then race back to the board and make changes. If the contestant hit the plunger with all six correct monitors lit in 60 seconds or less, he or she won the grand prize.

The setup of the game made it possible to be won with absolutely no skill at all. There is a clip of the bonus round on the internet floating around that shows a male contestant run up to the board, highlight the middle 6 boxes, run back to hit the plunger, and make 1 change at a time until he won, in slightly less than 30 seconds.

Notes

The American version of Wipeout premiered on USA Network the Monday following its cancellation and ran for several years as part of its afternoon game show block. It has not aired on any television station since.
Before Rob Dames and Bob Fraser started their production company, they served as writers, story editors, and later producers for the '80s hit Benson (on which Fraser played the recurring role of Senator Tyler for 6 of the show's 7 seasons).
One of the champions on Wipeout was Maggie Brown, who had appeared as a contestant on both the pilot and a regular episode of Press Your Luck several years earlier (as noted before, hosted by Tomarken).
This would prove to be Tomarken's last broadcast television game, as the rest of the shows he hosted (Decades, Paranoia) aired strictly on cable.

External links

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